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Tag Archives: Global Game Jam

I have never, ever programmed with Flash in my life. I just figured that now it might be the time, as I just signed up for the Global Game Jam. As programming with Python is kinda awkward (and not the best when you want to do games) and with Unity it quite often falls down playing with 3D graphics and getting them to work properly. Besides, 2D games are faster to make and can be (actually some are) way better than fancy 3D games. I think Flash is also nice, because everyone has it installed on their computers, so playing my games does not require extra installs and uninstalls (why would you uninstall my games!?). Also, I like learning new stuff and challenges are welcome.

Well, so much for the motivation. Now, to the big deal.

How to get started?

Well, first you need to get the Flash SDK, right? umm… it is pretty expensive when bought from Adobe and I don’t feel comfortable stealing it. Luckily, there is an open-source option called FlashDevelop. Installing everything was not that big of a deal and the wiki site has pretty decent guide for that. So, just follow the guide and in few minutes you are ready to get started!

Oh- but wait! WTF? What am I supposed to program? They have Action Script 2, Action Script 3, and HaXe? WHAT ARE THOSE MONSTERS!? Well, yeah. The wiki does not explain anything about these, but this is what I found out quickly: AS2 is the older version which was used programming Flash. AS3 is the newer, faster and (I assume?) better one. And HaXe seems to be some multiplatform language, that allows you to make one code to be javascript, php or flash. I myself did not see the reason for going all the trouble and finding more about that. At least, it seems to me that I can get quite nicely AS3 tutorials with Google.
So, choose AS3

HelloWorld! (or Flash)

The FlashDevelop site did not have any information on how to get started with the coding. The forum had lots of posts, but I felt anxious to start browsing through them for beginner info. So, google again and vóila! Thanks to DevMag post, I was watching the Hello World in no time 🙂 Go and check out the site (http://devmag.org.za/2009/04/02/flash-for-free/)

Okay, now I had the hello flash showing up. Time for some real action (to learn some basics!). Google google google…. and I found: http://prototyprally.com/making-games-in-actionscript-3-using-flashdevelop-part-1-the-setup/. This link starts with the same how to install, but then quickly moves to introduce some basics of Flash, like sprites & bitmaps, moving objects, clicking and events. Although the shown code is not very well explained on where to put, it is still worth your time. At least I got hang of the thing already.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your hands dirty! (more posts to follow in the future)

Hello and welcome to the fifth Picks of the week. This week there is probably more interviews than before, nonetheless quite interesting articles 😀 Enjoy, feel free to comment and if you like – Subscribe to the blog!

BattleStar Galactica MMORPG goes to Open Beta on 8th of February! Get ready to get your hands dirty (but don’t wait for too much, in the end, the series was not that good, how would the game be?) The thing I would really like to see is Babylon 5 game. *sniff* Probably never gonna happen…

The Global Game Jam created again a whole bunch of new games! Go and check them out and know yourself out! While you are at it, check out also the keynote speech for the Game Jam. It is always inspirational to see such things 🙂

Last week there was the World of Love indie developer conference in London. Those of you (like me) who don’t live in England probably weren’t able to participate. That is why we are eagerly waiting to see/listen the speeches online (like last year’s). Here is a rant about Storytelling in Video Games.

If you think you are doing bad, check this guy out. His mom just canceled the poor guy’s WoW account (maybe it was for the better?). Thanks to my friend Rostislav for this one 😀